Over the years Monsignor Aloysius Schwartz has been referred to as Washington’s Saint in the Making, Korea’s Mother Teresa, the Man with the Golden Heart, and Champion of the Poor. How did a young missionary priest, who grew up in a lower middle-class neighborhood in Washington, D.C., earn such titles? How could one lone priest, so far from home and family, change the lives of thousands of boys and girls and give them hope for the future? How could he provide a home for handicapped men and medical services for those who had none? How could a young priest in a foreign country be the founder of two religious congregations? How could he establish one of the largest individually-run international welfare programs in the world? How could he be elevated to Right Reverend Monsignor in the Philippines? How could he be declared a Servant of God by the Church and be considered for Beatification and Canonization?

Aloysius Schwartz was born September 18, 1930, the third child of Cedelia and Louis Schwartz in Washington, D.C. Cedelia and Louis had a total of eight children including one son, John Leo, who died just hours after birth. It was thought that a fall, while pregnant, down the steps of church may have caused Cedelia to lose the baby. Aloysius had an older sister Mary, an older brother Louis, Jr., and four younger sisters Rose, Dolores, Margaret and Joan. The family always called him Al.

Al’s father, Louis Schwartz, was one of twelve children who was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He was of German descent. His parents were Andrew Schwartz from Baltimore, Maryland, and his mother was Norma Fleischell from Eastport, Maryland. His grandparents lived near the Odor River in Germany. The Schwartz family was a strong Catholic family with four girls, Caroline, Mamie, Frances and Norma, and seven boys, John, Alphonse, Joseph, Raymond, James, Louis, and Leslie. His sister Frances became a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, an order of Sisters that was founded in France in 1804 with a passion for the poor and the voiceless. His brother Joseph had a son and a daughter who became religious. Frank became a Dominican priest and Mildred a Sister of the Holy Cross. Louis left school in the sixth grade and started working full-time to help supplement his family’s income. He was nineteen years old when he joined the Navy, and then held many jobs that included work for a furniture store and delivering bread for a bakery. In his later years he was named Director of the St. Vincent de Paul Stores in Washington, an organization that provides assistance to the needy.

Al’s mother, Cedelia Bourassa, was born in North Dakota and then moved with her family to Plentywood, Montana, where she was raised. Her parents, Phillip Bourassa and Azelda Plant Bourassa, were born in Canada. They were of French Canadian descent and had seven children. Cedelia had four brothers and two sisters, and she was the youngest child. Her parents ran a farm and a hotel, the Grandview, on the west side of Main Street in Plentywood. Her brothers were Alvila, Reno, Norrie, and Joseph, and her two sisters were Albena and Avangelina. Al’s mother was named Cedelia Amelia Bourassa and her nickname was Sid. Cedelia completed a two-year business course in college and then traveled to Washington, D.C. for a job in the Government Printing Office.

While working in Washington, Cedelia met Eva Tawyea, a co-worker from Minnesota, and they became good friends. Eva was dating Jim Schwartz, who had a brother named Louis. Eva introduced Cedelia to Louis, and eventually Cedelia and Eva married the two Schwartz brothers. Cedelia and Louis returned to Plentywood to marry on June 30, 1927. The four of them had a close relationship for many years, and they are now buried on the same hillside in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Jim and Cedelia died in their early forties, but the two families continued to support one another.

In a diary left behind by our mother, we learned that Cedelia dated many young men when she arrived in Washington to work in 1926. She was most attracted to Louis because he was the only one who would go to the Novena of Grace with her. Shortly after Cedelia died of cancer in 1946, at the age of forty-one, a letter was found that was addressed to the priests at St. Aloysius Church, where the Novena of Grace to St. Francis Xavier was held each year. The Government Printing Office where she worked was across the street from St. Aloysius Church. In the Novena booklet it reads, “Those who help Catholic Missionaries by their prayers and alms are carrying on the work for which St. Francis Xavier lived, suffered and died.” Francis Xavier was named Patron of the Missions, and was considered the greatest missionary since Saint Paul. He was a great athlete, a champion runner, and the leader in his class at school. In a similar way we could describe Al, a great athlete, a champion runner and the leader in his class at school. In that letter dated March 7, 1945, Cedelia notes that she had never heard of the Novena until she arrived in Washington, and she made the Novena twenty-one consecutive years. Many of her intentions were answered. She prayed for a good husband and a happy marriage. She prayed for healthy children, and that they might have a religious vocation. We can thank St. Francis Xavier and Father Al’s mother for Al’s vocation to the missions.

In her letter to the priests at St. Aloysius, Cedelia continued, “In 1942 my husband’s life was spared through the intercession of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St. Francis. He had pneumonia and was given no hope to live by the doctors, but after six weeks, at the completion of the Novena, he took a turn for the better and started to recover.”